Start a Nurture Program
If you’re not already doing some kind of nurture program, you should start now. It is inexpensive (typically less than $500/month) and highly effective.
Nurture programs are designed to educate prospects about the value you provide - because almost any offering requires some education - and generate excitement and buzz about your company.
The idea is that you identify a small list of people - typically 100-200. Then you send them something every month.
Who goes on the list?
- Prospects who are already in the sales cycle
- Ideal prospects (people or organizations that you would love to have as clients)
- Influencers (respected individuals who could refer business to you)
- Business partners
- Maybe editors or bloggers who you want to have cover you
- Maybe competitors (if you want to annoy them)
- Maybe your best customers
- You (because you want to see what everyone else is getting and ensure the quality is high)
What do you send them?
Your goal is to educate them about your offering, so they fully appreciate the value. You also want to keep them up with what’s new with your company - to show that you have lots of interesting, exciting things going on.
We typically rotate between the following things:
- Case studies
- Postcards (often with a special offer)
- Press releases
- Educational articles authored by you or someone in your company
- Reprints of articles that have appeared about you in industry publications
- Reprints of articles written by others that support your point of view or help educate about a topic they need to understand to fully appreciate your solution
- Personal letters introducing something new that you are doing or making a special offer
- Giveaways (something cute and relevant to your company or offering)
You can do this by email, which is a good idea if you are nurturing people around the world. But we prefer direct mail, because so few companies use direct mail anymore that your mailings stand out more.
Keep in mind that prospects don’t know that you are only mailing to a couple hundred people each month. For all they know, you are blanketing the industry. And in a tough market, where many companies are cutting back on marketing, that’s impressive.
They get the sense that there’s a lot going on with your company - you must be growing rapidly and doing well for them to hear from you so often. That helps your credibility as well as gains you mindshare.
These programs are simple to put together too. Just define the goals for your program, pull together a list to start with, and line up the first 6 months of what you’re going to mail. Then turn it over to an administrative person to execute - you can do it almost on autopilot.
Just revisit the plan every 4 months or so, as your business needs change. Update the mailing list, and tweak the items you are planning to send as new ideas come up and new collateral gets created.
Sphere: Related Content4 Ways to Get More Referrals
The vast majority of small businesses get most of their customers through referrals.
Referrals are the leads that are most likely to close, and they are usually effectively free.
So why are you not doing more to increase the number of referrals you get?
The problem is that most people are reluctant to ask for referrals. It’s true for you (I’m sure it is!) - I know it’s true for me, and it’s almost certainly true for everyone who works for you.
But there are ways to generate more referrals that are practically painless. Let’s look at a couple of those…
1. Create a tag-team referral process
The best time to ask for a referral is right after someone has become a customer. They are enthusiastic about your company, and referring someone else to you validates and reinforces the decision they have just made. But sales reps can be very reluctant to ask for a favor at this point - they just got the purchase order and they don’t want to jeopardize that.
So make it easy for them. Set up a system where the sales rep calls to say thank you and tell them what the next steps are. Perhaps you need to schedule a kickoff call or meeting. Have the sales rep say that Sally will be calling to schedule the kickoff call, and when she does that she will also be asking if they know anyone else who might be able to use your solution.
That’s easy, right? Your sales rep is not asking for a referral. She is simply saying that in the future, they will be asked for a referral.
It’s easy for Sally too. Sally can now call and go through her checklist with them, schedule the meeting, and say that as Mary (your sales rep) may have mentioned, she would like to ask if they know of anyone else who might be able to use your solution. The question is no longer a loaded one, and it is not being sprung on them.
It’s easy for your customer too. They have had a chance to think about it, and if they know someone, chances are pretty good that they will have that person’s contact info handy. If not, they are prepared for the question and can graciously decline.
2. Have a scheduled referral contest
Let customers know that sales reps will be competing to see who can generate the most referrals in the month of April. That gives the customers a chance to think about it and be prepared for the question.
Then sales reps can email or call customers, tell them they’re trying to win, and ask if they know anyone. When it’s a game, it’s more fun to participate. And when you ask for referrals in a light-hearted way, it is easier for everyone.
3. Segment your referrals
Go through the following groups in your head, and try to find one individual or company in each group that might be interested in referring business back and forth. Then go ask them!
- Competitors
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically sold in conjunction with yours
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically needed before yours
- Companies that sell products or services that are typically needed after yours
- Consultants who work in your industry
- Service providers who work in your industry
- Accountants, lawyers, recruiters and other professionals who work in your industry
Yes, the first item on that list was competitors. Almost certainly your products or services are not identical. Each of you is stronger in certain areas. Refer business back and forth in the areas where you don’t overlap.
4. Consider other touchpoints
Where and when else do customers or prospects touch your company? Can you build in referral processes there? Here are a couple more places to look at:
- Your website (refer a friend button)
- Customer service/tech support (after the satisfactory resolution of their problem)
- Email marketing or email newsletters (ask recipients to forward the email)
If you work on adding one new referral source each month, in less than a year you will be generating a substantial number of new, high-quality leads.
Sphere: Related Content3 Easy Ways to Start Web 2.0 Marketing
I talk to a lot of people who have heard that they need to do “Web 2.0 marketing” but have no idea what that involves or how they would begin doing it.
Here are 3 simple starting points:
1. Go find 3 blogs that are relevant to your target market and start reading them on a regular basis. Particularly look for blogs by thought leaders in your industry, competitors, business partners, and prospects.
You can use Technorati or Google Blog Search or just do a simple Google search - search on keywords that are important to your industry and add the word “blog”.
For those who are new to reading blogs… You don’t actually have to visit the blogsite regularly to check if there is a new post. Most blogs give you the ability to subscribe so new posts are sent to you automatically.
When there is a blog post that resonates with you, post a comment on the blog. If you see another comment on the blog that you think is particularly good, comment on the comment. Or rate the comment, if that is an option.
2. Find an online community that is relevant to your market. The best places to look are on the websites of the top publications for your industry or on an association’s website.
See how they let you participate. More likely than not, there will be discussion forums. If subscribing to their forums is an option, do that. (You might want to put a filter on your email client so these emails go into a folder you can check when you have time rather than cluttering your inbox.) Otherwise, check back every week or so (depending on the volume of traffic) to see what’s new.
Is there anything else you can do in the community? Upload an article? Comment on a blog? If there is anything that strikes your fancy, do it.
3. Get a Twitter account. Don’t worry about tweeting yet. Just search on keywords that are relevant for you, and choose a dozen people to follow. As with the blogs, good people to follow include industry thought leaders, editors, consultants, competitors, partners, prospects and customers. (Don’t be surprised if they follow you back.)
Then check back every day or two to see what’s going on. It’s fine to just lurk. But if there’s a discussion you have an opinion about, go ahead and contribute.
There you go - 3 easy ways to get your feet wet with Web 2.0 marketing.
And if, by chance, you are wondering why you would even want to do Web 2.0 marketing…
Web 2.0 is all about going out to your market and talking directly with your customers and prospects. It’s about building connections, collaborating, sharing information - being more transparent than you have been in the past - and getting prospects and customers more involved in your business and with each other than they have been before.
Here’s a recent article in the Wall Street Journal:
The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World
Here’s a slightly older blog post from FutureLab that has some good insights too:
15 Golden Rules for Web 2.0
Add One New Pillar to Your Marketing Parthenon
The concept of a marketing Parthenon originated with Jay Abraham, a brilliant marketing guru whose ideas have profoundly influenced many marketers and business leaders.
Most companies get leads from one or two marketing strategies - techniques they have mastered and are using very effectively to drive revenue.
But if you expand the strategies you use - developing a number of marketing techniques that work for you successfully - your company will be built, like the Parthenon, on a more solid and sturdy foundation.
Then if one of the pillars breaks, your company is still secure because you can rely on the other pillars to hold it up.
Think about where you get your leads - and your website doesn’t count, because it is really just a funnel for converting traffic into prospects. Where do your leads really come from?
I bet you get most of them from just a couple places.
This month, try experimenting with a new method of generating leads. Set a goal of building one new pillar - mastering a new marketing technique and making it work for your business.
In my next couple of posts, I’ll talk about three low-cost pillars you can try.
Sphere: Related ContentRead My Blog
Alex Mandossian, an Internet marketing guru, tried something interesting recently. He sent out an email to his list, which probably numbers in the 100,000+ range, and asked people to read his blog.
First, he surveyed his list and asked whether people wanted 2 posts per week or 3. By a tiny margin, they said 2.
So he asked people to go visit his blog every Tuesday and Thursday because he would have a post there on those days at 8:44am.
And he asked them to promise to read his posts and comment on them.
Wow!
First of all, that’s a lot of nerve. But kudos to him for having the courage to ask.
And I am one of the people who agreed to do it. Now, I’m not going to take the trouble to actually go there, but I set up a Feedburner and have his posts brought to my email. And most weeks I read them, which is something I would never have done if he hadn’t asked.
But he did ask, and I’m doing it.
Pretty impressive.
There’s a lesson here… If you want more people to read your blog, try asking them.
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